Dan Tobacco Sweet Vanilla Honeydew

One of the best aromatics I have ever tried: not my favourite kind of tobacco, but certainly a top quality stuff. The tin aroma is EXTREMELY sweet, like candy: caramel, vanilla, honey, coconut. The positive thing is that it smells like real good additives, not the chemical, unnatural smell of many other aromatics (including Planta Danish Black Vanilla). The look is of a ready rubbed-orange colored virginia: an unusual choice, since most aromatics rely on cavendish, and a good one. This is one of the few aromatics in which you still can feel some tobacco in it, and the natural sweetness of Virginia is ideally complemented by the casing. Upon firing, the taste is not as sweet and dominated by vanilla as one might expect from the tin aroma. It isn't nauseating at all, unlike Danish Black Vanilla. The taste is a careful balance between the virginia tobacco, the vanilla, and a hint of something that may remind of anise. It burns fine, with some wetness but not much sticky goop. Really, I don't like aromatics but this one can't seem to have any real negative points to complain about, unless of course my lack of passion for aromatics. It is also one of the very few blends that my female colleagues at work appreciate, so for someone this might be an added value. But, after all, CAO is always a guarantee for decent tobaccos of any kind... If you like the genre, you can boost my rating to three stars.

One of the best aromatics I have ever tried: not my favourite kind of tobacco, but certainly a top quality stuff. The tin aroma is EXTREMELY sweet, like candy: caramel, vanilla, honey, coconut. The positive thing is that it smells like real good additives, not the chemical, unnatural smell of many other aromatics (including Planta Danish Black Vanilla). The look is of a ready rubbed-orange colored virginia: an unusual choice, since most aromatics rely on cavendish, and a good one. This is one of the few aromatics in which you still can feel some tobacco in it, and the natural sweetness of Virginia is ideally complemented by the casing. Upon firing, the taste is not as sweet and dominated by vanilla as one might expect from the tin aroma. It isn't nauseating at all, unlike Danish Black Vanilla. The taste is a careful balance between the virginia tobacco, the vanilla, and a hint of something that may remind of anise. It burns fine, with some wetness but not much sticky goop. Really, I don't like aromatics but this one can't seem to have any real negative points to complain about, unless of course my lack of passion for aromatics. It is also one of the very few blends that my female colleagues at work appreciate, so for someone this might be an added value. But, after all, CAO is always a guarantee for decent tobaccos of any kind... If you like the genre, you can boost my rating to three stars.

I had very high expectations for this blend. The reviews sounded wonderful and I was ready for a great aromatic.

The tin aroma was sweet, but not overly topped.

The variation in the ribbon cut between tins seemed to be almost as if they were two different blends, one tin had ribbons about 2 inches long, caked about ½ thick. Once prepared packing was very nice. The tobacco held a light nicely and smoked straight through the bowl leaving a light-gray ash.

I think if my expectations would not have been so high, I may have enjoyed this more, but since I was looking for the perfect dessert blend, I left disappointed.

This still was a very nice tobacco.

So far, I have not received any comments on the room note but from what I noticed the aroma was wonderfully sweet.

I would recommend this to all, but due to the tin variations do not let the previous reviews get you too excited.

Dan Tobacco
S.V.H.

Blend notes: “A fine ready rubbed blend of selected bright and sweet Virginia leaf delicately scented with smooth vanilla. Due to EU regulations, this is renamed and sold in those countries as "S.V.H."

The initials of this blend stand for ‘Sweet Vanilla Honeydew.’ This is one of the few straight Virginia blends with intentional topping. The tin note smells of ‘perfumed vanilla’ whereas the taste leans toward a peach or, I suppose, a sweet melon.

European/Danish blenders tend to view Aromatics differently than American blenders. The key difference is in the amount of intentional flavoring used. In the case of S.V.H. the flavoring is mild or perhaps restrained.

The Virginias provide grass, hay, and some subtle citrus and a bit of tang. The tobacco out of the tin lights up easily and stays lit. The room note is inviting. There is a bit of honey that comes across now and then.

The blend has struggled in the TR review space — well over 100 reviews with averages below 3.0. My view is that there are so many amazing Aromatics available that a blend really has to be a stand out. Reviews for S.V.H started showing up circa 2001.

Generally, my understanding is that to be an Aromatic, a blend has intentional topping (top sauce) that is added later in the blending process with the mutual goals of a sweet smelling room note and a sweet taste in the smoking.

Most blends are ‘cased’ or ‘have a casing’ of some sweetening agents to achieve pH balancing or to amp up flavors in the leaf — the point is that, by and large, casing does not lead to a blend being categorized as an Aromatic.

My point here is to engage definitions a bit with you the reader. One TR reviewer said of this blend that it is “not heavily cased as a true aromatic would be.” In my opinion, this is not the ‘correct’ language to use. I mean no disrespect to that person. How we use language with respect to blends may well have changed or evolved over the years. Today, casing is almost universal in blends and is unrelated to whether the blend ends up as an Aromatic or a straight Virginia or an English/Balkan. What defines an Aromatic is the presence of intentional flavoring — known as topping.

S.V.H. is very mildly topped with vanilla and honey. On my palate it is insufficient. The room note is pleasant but the taste is sub-optimal.

I would rate S.V.H. as a 2 star out of 4 blend.

I'm a new pipe smoker...but PastorPipe has given what I would call a very accurate review as I concur with his words almost exactly. Nice tin note...the tobacco appeared to come out of the tin ready to smoke without any drying required. The smoke did give a pleasant room note but I was hard pressed to taste any vanilla of any kind. After about a quarter of the bowl I did start to get other subtle tastes from the various tobaccos. The end result I find is a decent tobacco to smoke with little taste for those smokers who have interest in smoking an aromatic without the noticeable flavors of anything added to the tobacco!! I'll give it a 2...and I'm sure I won't buy again as I'm looking for something with more flavor. I'll finish the tin but I'll treat it as a regular tobacco rather than an aromatic with regard to how it tastes rather than how it "should" taste and smell!!

This blend must have been made with regard only for those around the person smoking it, as it is quite mild but gets rave reviews about how great it smells when it's in my pipe. That's not a bad thing, especially if your significant other doesn't like "tobacco smell." Unfortunately the aroma enjoyed by the room doesn't come through for the person actually smoking the bowl, and though I like to have SVH on hand for those around me, it's not one that I actually get much from. Be aware that this stuff DOES BITE unless smoked slowly.

I enjoy aromatics by Dan Tobacco,they make some of the most tastiest aromatics around.But this blend is very tasty,the sweet vanilla is superb on this blend but this aromatic burns my mouth hotter than the fires of hell!I recieved this as a sample and after a few puffs I almost gave in to buying a tin but when the casing set my tongue on fire more than anything I ever experienced in aromatics I decided it simply wasn't worth it.

If you can stand the heat the flavor is good. I could not take the searing so I cannot give it a thumbs up.

Like ?Da Vinci,? his is one of the first tins of tobacco I ever smoked. It was a pleasure until I smoked my way through the second half of the second tin. Then, as with ?Da Vinci,? I just felt like I needed something a little more notably tobacco than noticeably aromatic. Something for the beginner to try, if so inclined, and not at all unpleasant for the aromatic smoker making his way through that area of the tobacco spectrum.